Since I love making it seem as if The Netherlands is in any way relevant anywhere ever, here's the most recent market share figures for smartphones, released today, covering the month of August (there's a graph showing the figures for every month from August 2011 until August 2012). The iPhone has a market share of almost 20% - but Android is ravaging the market, and now holds a market share of 70% (!). Nearly 75% of all Android smartphones sold in The Netherlands are made by Samsung. If you take the entire phone market - including feature phones - the iPhone holds 13% (up from 8% in August 2011) and Android 47% (up from 30% in August 2011). Windows Phone barely manages to hold on at 1%, and the BlackBerry dropped from 13% to 5%. Interestingly enough, in this combined feature/smartphone market, nearly 50% are Samsung phones. This of course doesn't yet include the iPhone 5, so the next set of figures will most likely show a spike for Apple. Still, if The Netherlands is in any way indicative of the rest of Europe, it's no surprise Apple tends to focus on US figures during its presentations.

Well, considering that Android does not lock you into Google's ecosystem, I don't see this as a bad thing! Dont like Google? Fine, use Amazon. Dont like Amazon either? Sideload your apps directly from the software vendor's webpage. You have options with Android, unlike Microsoft's new walled garden that mimics Apple!